Sai's last hope
by Elsah
Summary: Sai's family has fallen apart. Her father is working overseas, her mother is cruel to her, and her little sister is somewhere in a foreign country... Will attending Rikkaidai and meeting Kirihara Akaya help her life come together? Or maybe not?
1. Chapter 1

"Kirihara, please stay behind after class," Mr Jones said, while slamming a bunch of textbooks on his desk. "Sleeping in class will not be tolerated."

"Aah?" Kirihara groaned, still sleepy from his afternoon nap during English class. "What? No! If I'm late for tennis practice again Fukubochou will get me to run another 50 laps!"

"Kirihara, please be quiet this instant. Read from page 36 in the textbook," Mr Jones snarled angrily.

"Hai," he replied sheepishly, feeling defeated.

Kirihara tried to sneak out without getting class, but he got caught.

"Kirihara, where do you think you're going?" snapped Mr Jones. "You _still_ need to write out the _entire_ essay you didn't do for homework, remember?"

"Aaah, sorry, I forgot about that," he said, scratching his head.

Needless to say, he spent the next 45 minutes writing the essay out, under the strict supervision of Mr Jones. After Kirihara had finished writing the whole thing out, he dumped it on Mr Jones' desk and sprinted to the tennis club at top speed.

"Kuso! I'm gunna get killed. I hate that old English teacher," he muttered under his breath. "What's the point in learning English anyway – it's just a waste of time. As if I'm ever going to go to _England_, of all places."

"Actually, there's a lot of point. Learning another language like English will help you get a job when you're older. Also, it can help you communicate with foreigners, since most people know how to speak English."

Kirihara whirled around, startled at whoever had said that. A girl about 3 inches shorter than him with brown hair and caramel eyes stared back at him with raised eyebrows. She wore a black sports top, leggings, and a black headband. Kirihara blinked in surprise and cleared his throat before speaking.

"Heh, how _interesting_," he said sarcastically. "Kirihara Akaya, second year… You?"

"Asuka Sai, second year also. I'm a transfer student. Unfortunately, I got lost on the way here, so I missed school," she replied blankly. "Anyway, what are you doing here? I thought that school at Rikkai ended at 3:30. It's nearly 4:00 now."

"Ah no, sorry I need to go – I lost track of the time! Hey, wanna come with me, seeing as you're new here. I'm going to the tennis club; it's pretty fun there."

"Sure, why not," she said grinning boyishly.

"Yukimura Bochou! Sanada Fukubochou!" Kirihara shouted at the top of his voice as he arrived at the tennis courts. "Gomen, gomen, I got stuck behind at class because I was sleepi-

"Tarundoru! 60 laps for being late!" bellowed Sanada.

"Hai hai... Eh, where did she go?" Kirihara said glancing around.

"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and do your laps. When you're done, you will do 150 side steps before playing a match with Jackal."

"Aah, Sanada Fukubochou, that's a bit mean, don't you think?" he laughed nervously, scratching his head.

"Did you say something?"

"No," he said sheepishly.

Kirihara was about to start his laps when he saw Asuka sitting on a nearby bench beneath an oak tree. She was flicking through some textbooks of some kind. Recognising her immediately, he decided to jog over.

"Hey, what you got there?"

Asuka looked up and said, "Science books. See, I can't disappoint father with my grades. When he gets back from France, I want to prove that I'm working hard."

"Whoa, what? He's overseas? For how long?" asked Kirihara, surprised.

"He's always overseas. He has important business with the French and English prime ministers, but it doesn't matter. He always comes back at least once or twice a year when he needs to discuss issues with the Japanese government though."

"Ah, gomen," he said sympathetically. "Hey I need to get back to my laps before Sanada sees me. See you later, yeah?"

"Actually, I think I'll take my leave now – I should probably go and practice ping pong before it gets too dark. Ja, Kirihara-kun," she said, flashing him a smile.


	2. Chapter 2

Kirihara woke up at 5:30am to get ready for tennis practice. "Aah, I don't wanna get out of bed," he thought. He was just about to go back to sleep when a massive bucket of ice cold water got thrown on his head. "Ehhhhhhhhhhhh? Nee-san! What the hell are you doing?!"

"Ah, you're awake, Otouto," his sister replied with a sophisticated smile. "Breakfast's ready, so hurry up. Do you want a lift to tennis practice?"

"Nah – I can walk there myself," he said feeling sorry for himself.

He quickly washed his hair (as it was wet with lumps of ice hanging off), got dressed and brushed his teeth. He slid down the bannister, grabbed the toast his sister had made for him, and sprinted out the door. Within about 5 minutes, he was at the courts, along with the other tennis regulars, and they all began practising.

Meanwhile, in Asuka's house, she was getting beaten by her mother for not waking up early enough to make breakfast for her.

"Sai, you stupid child! I should be ashamed of myself for having you as my daughter. You should wake up at 4:45 at the very maximum to make me breakfast – is this how you think you should treat me?" she bellowed while whipping her.

"No," she replied quietly, while cringing in pain. There were red marks all over her body, from head to toe. To be honest, this beating was nothing compared to the other beatings she's had in the past. The previous week, she had got a B in Physics and Chemistry. Her mother was not happy, and had ordered that one of the maids beat her. That had lasted for a whole hour.

After about half an hour, she arrived at Rikkaidai for her first day in a black limousine. "Thank you for the lift," she said to the driver. She stumbled out of the car weakly, and began walking the rest of the way. She was an hour early, so she wandered over to the fountains a few metres ahead. She collapsed onto the grass underneath a big tree, got out some bandages from her rucksack, and began bandaging up the cuts and bruises.

"Gosh! What are you doing? Why are there so many bruises on you?!" Kirihara shouted as he ran towards her.

"Oh, this… I just tripped up, that's all," Sai replied, giving a fake smile.

Unfortunately for her, Kirihara knew what a fake smile and a real smile was, but didn't say anything else. Instead he bandaged up the rest of her arms and legs for her. He knew that it was impossible to get this badly hurt by just falling over. "Hey, is everything okay? Did you really trip up?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm just a bit clumsy sometimes. I should probably go to the library to study before school starts," she said. She got up, ignoring the pain, using Kirihara's shoulder and the tree for support, and made her way to the library.

Kirihara went back to the tennis courts, only to be shouted by Sanada for being late. "Why did it take you twenty minutes to go to the toilet?!" He roared in his ear.

"S-Sanada Fukubochou… well, you see, there was a massive queue in there, so I had to wait," Kirihara lied, scratching his head.

"40 laps, now."

He looked over to Yukimura to get some sympathy. Fortunately, he said that he only had to do 20, as he was in a good mood.

Kirihara did his 20 laps, before going back to the tennis courts and going back to practice. After tennis practice ended, he went back to the classroom to wait for the teacher so that the lessons could begin.


	3. Chapter 3

The day had not been very good for Sai. First of all, half the class played about 5 pranks on her, as she was a newcomer. She didn't make any new friends as they saw the bandages and thought that she was attention seeking, and the only person she knew was Kirihara, who slept throughout the whole day. Then, it started to rain, so she had to wait for an hour for the driver to pick her up. This had not made her mother happy, so her back got whipped again.

"I missed my concert because you needed to be picked up from school!" she shrieked.

"Nagisa-san, it wasn't Sai-sama's fault that it rained. Also, she might have got lost, as she is new to the area," a maid tried to say to her.

"Shut up! This has nothing to do with you! Both of you, get out of my sight. Get out of my house this very instant, go!" she boomed.

Sai quickly mouthed a thank you to the maid, as she had tried to help her, and exited the house like mother had told her to do so. She didn't know where to go, and figured that if she went anywhere different she'd probably get lost. She decided to go to Rikkai, as there was nowhere else to go. She went over to the tennis courts, as there were still a few people playing there.

She sat down on a low wall and watched them play for about half an hour, until a shadow came over her. She turned around to see Kirihara looming over her with a massive grin on his face.

"What's up?" he said merrily. "What are you doing here? It's like 5:00 now."

"Oh, er, well I have nothing better to do so I decided to come here."

"Okay then, well I guess I'll see you later then," he said. He thought that it was a little strange of her coming to school so late, but didn't think too heavily about it.

Sai got out some Maths books and started working on the homework questions that had been set. After about an hour, she thought that she would go back home, as her mother would get angry at her.

"Kirihara," she called. "I'm leaving now."

"Ah okay, do you want me to walk you home?" he replied.

"No, it's fine, it's only 6:00 anyway."

She wasn't sure how to get back entirely, but guessed most of the way. About 15 minutes later, she saw a park, and decided to go in it. There wasn't anyone there – it looked abandoned. She gently sat on the creaky swing, and rocked back and forth. She remembered the few happy memories of when she and her little sister, Sayo, had played in the park a few years back.

All the memories came flooding back, now sad ones. She remembered how Sayo was in tears, from when her mother and father had found some people to adopt her. She remembered how she begged and begged them not to leave her, and how devastated she was. Soon, Sai began tearing up, and remembered how her little sister had been taken away, and how they had just left her for Japan. Sayo was in England, with some random family that their parents vaguely knew, all alone. She had no idea where she was, and hadn't seen her for about 4 months, since they left to come to Japan.

Eventually, she returned home, to find her mother shouting into the phone. "I don't care what you do to Sayo, she doesn't deserve anything. Just leave her somewhere, deal with it yourself," she heard her mother bellow.

Sai froze as soon as she heard the word 'Sayo. _Sayo?_ That _wasn't possible, was it?_

"Mother?" she shyly said.

Her mother slammed the phone on the table and took a seat. "Yes?"

"Did you just say… _Sayo_?" she asked.

She slowly nodded, and lighted a cigarette. "Sai, sit down." Sai did as she was told. "Your father and I have kept in contact with Sayo's new parents. She is doing fine at the moment."

Did she just say _new parents? _Sai thought. "But you just said that they were doing something to her and that they should just leave her… What's happened to Sayo? Is she alright? You just said that you _didn't care_!" she shouted.

"Don't speak like that to your own mother like that, Sai! Do you want to get whipped again?" she threatened.

"No, but can I ask something?"

"What?" she replied sharply, taking another puff from her cigarette.

"Do you know… where she is?" Sai asked quietly.

"Yes, but it is none of your business. Go to your room, you need to wake up early to make me breakfast tomorrow. I don't want any of the maids to do it, as they will be getting me ready for a meeting again."

Sai went up to her bedroom obediently, and lay on her bed. Questions were spinning all around her head about Sayo. She was really worried, but did not dare say anything to her mother – she would get beaten again. She fell into a long, deep sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Sai woke up early the next morning, and went to school, after making her mother breakfast. She was really tired, and more questions about Sayo were coming to her head every 5 minutes. She could barely concentrate, and she was getting almost every question wrong in Maths, even though Maths was her best subject.

She spent just about the whole of lunch by herself, with people asking her questions about where she had come from every now and then. After lunch, they had PSHE (Social Education). Unfortunately for her, the teacher asked her about her family, and if she had any siblings. She just ignored the question and pretended to go to the toilet in order to prevent herself from crying in front of the class. This made everyone think that she was a complete weirdo, so they played some more pranks on her.

By the end of the day, she was exhausted. She flopped down onto some grass after school, and shut her eyes. When she woke up, she found Kirihara crouching down next to her, and some tall, serious-faced person standing next to him.

"Aah, you're awake. What are you doing by the way?" Kirihara asked.

"What do you think? Sleeping, Kirihara-kun."

"Call me Akaya, we're friends, right?" he said confidently.

"Y-yeah, sure. In that case, call me Sai then," she replied with a grin.

"Okay! Oh, and by the way, this is Sanada Fukubuchou – the vice-captain of the tennis club."

"Sanada Genichirou, 3rd year. Nice to meet you," he said with a stoic face.

"Asuka Sai, 2nd year. Nice to meet you too, Sanada-senpai."

"We're on our way to the tennis club, if you want to come… you can even hit some balls if you want – I'm sure Yukimura Buchou wouldn't mind," Kirihara said.

"Okay, but I don't want to play, I'll be fine watching," she sighed, that remembering the cuts and bruises would affect her playing skills. She was a ping pong champion, and had won the title in Japan 4 times in a row, but now that she was too weak she didn't play anymore. Never the less, she still played every day, no matter how much it hurt, as she enjoyed it too much.

She watched the tennis club practise, yet again, and she found it really interesting how hard they all worked. Afterwards, Akaya went up to her. "Hey, you said that you played ping pong… are you any good?"

"Oh, not really, I've only won a few competitions, that's all," she replied.

"Competitions? Which ones?" he asked, obviously intrigued.

"Just a few national tournaments in England."

"National tournaments? Woah, can I watch you play sometime soon?"

"Well, er, I'm not that good anymore, there wouldn't be much point," she said, considering Akaya would probably notice her flinch every time she moved the bat. "Anyway, I should get going – bye, Akaya."

As she left, a pink haired boy jumped onto Akaya with a video recorder. "Oi, I see you're progressing well with your little_ girlfriend_," he sarcastically said. "I have your conversation taped for when you want to watch it."

"Eehhhh? Why did you tape it, Marui-senpai? Give it back!" he shouted as he chased his senpai up and down the tennis courts. Eventually, he managed to delete it, and Sanada punished them for disrupting the area with 50 laps each.

Sai walked back to her house, to find her mother having a conversation with her father. "Father?" She asked, confused as to why he was there. "I thought that you were in France." Even though they weren't close to each other, she was still happy that he was in Japan.

"Sai," he greeted carelessly. "Sayo and her new family have moved to South Korea. You are not to see her, but we thought that it was the right decision to let you know."

Her heart shattered to pieces when he said that she was not to see her, but a little hope was still left in her when he said that she had moved to South Korea. This meant that her little sister was less than 3 hours away from her on a plane. She was desperate to see her – she needed to know if Sayo was alright or not.

"But Father, why can't I see her?" she asked sadly.

"It isn't for us to tell you, but we don't want you to see her condition at the moment. It doesn't matter though, she should be fine soon."

Sai was sure that her heart had been completely destroyed when he said 'her condition'. "What?! What's wrong with her?" she demanded.

"I told you, it doesn't matter. You should feel happy, we chose you between you and her. Be grateful that it isn't you in South Korea," he said calmly, smoke puffing out of his cigar.

"_Happy_? How can I _possibly_ be _happy_ with _any_ of this?"

"Don't speak to me like that. How dare you!" he shouted angrily. "Do you want to go where she is at the moment?"

She shook her head hesitantly, before leaving the room and going to the bathroom to take a shower.


	5. Chapter 5

Sai stared at a photograph – a photograph of her and Sayo 5 years ago, when they were both happy. She was definitely going to find her sister, no matter what. It was a Saturday morning, and she had nothing to do, yet again. If she went downstairs, then she would get shouted at by her mother. She decided that she would get out of the house to get some fresh air. It was still only her 6th day in Japan, so she went to Rikkaidai, so that she wouldn't get lost, even though it was incredibly sad to go there on a weekend.

She wandered about for a while. It was very peaceful, as barely anyone was there, with the exception of a few basketball players running up and down every now and then. She turned the corner of the sports building when a tennis ball came shooting past, about 5cm from touching her.

"Sai?" Akaya said, completely surprised. "Aah, sorry about that… did it hit you?"

"N-no," she replied, completely shocked from what had just happened.

"Why are you at school? It's Saturday, remember?"

"Well, I had nothing to do today… so I decided to come here."

"Mmh," he said. "Is everything okay? I mean… all the cuts and bruises, hanging out at Rikkai all the time is a bit… kind of suspicious."

"I'm fine, just annoyed."

"At what?"

"Nothing…" She didn't want to spill out anything about her family to him. It would only make him worry, and she didn't want him to make matters worse.

"Come on, tell me," he said, putting on his puppy face.

"No! Just leave it!" she shouted, louder and sharper than she had expected it to sound. He looked at her worriedly and sighed.

"I'm your friend. You can tell me…" he said.

"Sorry, didn't mean to shout. It's just some family issues," she mumbled. He just stared at her, obviously wanting a more detailed answer than that.

Would it be better to tell him or not? He _was_ her only friend, and he _could_ possibly make things better in some situations. In the end, after about 2 minutes of silence, she decided to not tell him. She looked back up at him, and he was just staring at her like she was some weirdo who was antisocial.

"You don't have to tell me," Akaya said, breaking the silence. "But telling someone can make the situation easier for you. I'm going back to practise, see you."

"Wait!" He turned around. "I'll tell you… but you can't tell anyone."

He nodded and leaned against the wall. She sat down and gulped. "Look," she slowly began. "I have a little sister. She's in Korea at the moment. My parents chose to keep me instead of her, and sent her off to live with a random family."

"How old is she?"

"10, almost 11," she continued. "They won't let me see her, or tell me where she is in Korea. I can't ask them about it, or…" She looked at the bandages on her arms and legs and he looked at her in disbelief.

"No way… they didn't do that to you, did they?"

She bit her lip and nodded slightly. "I'm desperate to see Sayo though – my father said that she wasn't in a good condition."

Akaya's jaw dropped. "Is there a way for you to find out where she is?"

"No, I'm afraid not. I know that my mother has sent emails about everything that has happened to Sayo to her 'new parents', but she always takes her laptop with her wherever she goes."

"We'll figure out a way for you to see her somehow, yeah? I've never had any major family issues like you have before, but I'll try and help the best that I can," he said calmly.

"That won't work… someone will get hurt somehow."

He took her by the shoulders and said, "Never give up on family, Sai. We'll discuss it on Monday in Lunch and come up with a plan. I need to go back to the tennis courts before Sanada Fukubuchou kills me, you coming?"

"No, I remembered there's somewhere I need to go. Bye, Akaya." She sighed – he had no idea what he was getting himself into. Her parents would go crazy if they found out that he had been helping her with a 'plan' to find Sayo.

She walked towards the park that she had been to on the same day that she heard her mother talk about Sayo over the phone. There was a family: a dad, a mum, and two children. The children were girls, and they were playing on the roundabout. They looked so happy together, all of them laughing and smiling. Sai sighed, remembering all the happy moments of her childhood with Sayo.


	6. Chapter 6

Monday came slowly for Sai, after doing nothing on the Sunday before. She arrived at Rikkai earlier than before, as she had slept for a good 12 hours. At about 6:00am, she went to the library to study for History.

"Hi," came a high-pitched voice from behind her.

She looked around to see a tall-ish girl smiling brightly. She had dark brown hair with caramel streaks in it, and had her uniform on smartly – there wasn't a single crease on it. "I heard that you're a new transfer student here," she continued.

"Y-yeah, I transferred last week," Sai replied shyly.

"Well welcome to Rikkai,"she said, taking a seat next to her. "I'm Morimoto Emi, 3rd year." They had a conversation for a while about each other, before Morimoto left because of a piano practice.

'A new friend,' Sai thought to herself. She was excited about this, as most of the people in her form decided to avoid her, and she thought that Morimoto was quite a nice person. School didn't start until 9:00 and she still had 2 more hours left, so she decided to go to the rooftop. She dug out a small piece of paper out of her bag with small writing that filled the page. She read it over and over again, like she had done every night since she got it.

It was a letter from Sayo. Before they had left her in England, her parents had allowed for Sayo to write one last letter to Sai. Of course they had checked and scribbled out anything about the situation before giving it to her, meaning that it was quite short. She kept it with her wherever she went, and only occasionally would she put it in a box under her bed.

She only shed a few tears – she tried not to cry over the situation too much, or else her mother would whip her if she got used to doing it. She stared at the letter for 5 minutes, before noticing that someone was looking intently at her.

"Yo," said Akaya, before leaning on a nearby pole. "What are you staring at?"

"Oh, this is just a letter."

"Hmm… how are things going at home?" he slowly asked, choosing his words carefully so that he didn't upset her.

"O-okay. I should probably go to class actually," she replied, grabbing her bag. As she grabbed it, Akaya noticed a big, red, swollen cut just above her wrist.

"Your wrist!" he shouted, his eyes widening.

'Damn,' she thought. 'He noticed…' She gulped before saying, "It's nothing, and I just burnt it, that's all."

"Sai… I already know your story, so you don't need to lie to me."

"M-my father got angry when I forgot to empty the bins… so he threw his coffee on my wrist."

"We're going to the medical room," Akaya sternly said while pushing her shoulder forwards to gesture the direction in which they were going to. "We still have half an hour left before school starts."

They went to the medical room, where a woman bandaged the wrist up, after spraying it with some antiseptic and disinfection spray. She gave Sai a slip to give to her parents for going there. Of course, she binned it as her parents would go crazy if they knew that she got it healed.

"Hey, about meeting Sayo," Akaya said quietly while they were making their way back to class. She looked at him dead in the eye with curiosity of what he was going to say next. "We'll discuss that later in break, yeah?"

Sai nodded and took her place in her seat. She saw that there was an envelope on her desk, so she opened it up. It was from Morimoto saying that they should meet up the next day after school. She sighed, knowing that her parents would want her back straight after school, in order for her to practise ping pong. Morimoto had written her phone number on the back, so she texted her quickly to say that she couldn't come before class started.


End file.
